'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎15r] (29/118)

was charming but as dark as Joan Mary was fair. Some years later she
r s.-ss-sr,s r :,“. 6,h .
Colonel 1 ^ 7 L ° W (Secretar y) ^ his wife and I accompanied
Sas not well ^o,^h t US fw “ a ViSit t0 Caraba y- Weir unfortunately
"! S “ 0t "® 11 t , enou S h t0 S° with us. We went in our own transnort as far as
“ rae fourte ®^ out of Baroda and then' transferred
into Cambay S.ate cars, m one of which we forded the river, there about
eighteen inches deep. Then on over the most appalling "roads" arriving
m Cambay m time for lunch. cu.j.±v±ag
known T a ir Sta7 mt at the State Guest House ’ father euphemistically
known as Sea View. The sea, as at Southend, was chiefly conspicuous by
its absence. However, that evening the Weir girls and I walked over two
TflourLh ^ lt * UP t0 tW ° hundred y ears before Cambay had been
a flourishing port and was one of the first places to have a British
trading station. The old ’’factor's house” of which I have a photograph
had a date on it ”1613", proving that the Europeans had been in those*
before there was question of military occupation or conquest,
n 937 there were signs that the silting up progress was starting to be
reversed and had this continued it would have been a very good thing for
Cambay.
Our chief reason for going to Cambay was to attend the wedding
of the Nawab’s sister to one of his cousins. The Naw'ab had married the
present bridegroom's sister the year before, and she had quite recently
produced a son. The bridegroom was a Qizalbash from Lahore, and a
regular officer in the Rajputana Rifles, and his British Colonel was
also a guest. Three of his brothers and hordes of female relations had
come down from the Punjab for the wedding and it was a tremendous family
paxty.. The women, of course, were purdah, so remained unseen except by
the ^eir girls and Mrs. Low but the men, in their wedding garments,
including magnificent jewels and turbans, were a wonderful sight.
Besides the ceremonies connected with the wedding there were
various other functions, including a state banquet, to which we were all
invited, and there was plenty to see in the city itself. It was all
most interesting and our four days there gave me my first glimpse of the
inside workings of a small Indian State, in contrast to a large one
such as Baroda.
By the end of March it was heating up to 102° and I was beginning
to look forward to going up to the cool of Simla at the end of April. The
Weirs were leaving for Kashmir on April 18th and many other people were
going away too, so Baroda looked like being dull as well as hot. I was
lucky to have had my six months' posting in the winter.